


Verisimilitude

by ChaoticNeutral



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chameleon AU, Gen, Lies, Lies Unravel, ml salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 13:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16788103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticNeutral/pseuds/ChaoticNeutral
Summary: You have to be careful what you post online. Especially when your claim to fame is posting facts and information about heroes. Just because something gets you views doesn't mean it's a good thing. And the most important thing to do before publishing anything is ensuring the validity and truth of what you're putting out there.Too bad Alya forgot about that when she posted that video starring Lila.





	Verisimilitude

* * *

Alya was in a pretty good mood that morning. She had all her homework done for school ahead of time. She had plans with her friends later. She’d just had an amazing breakfast. And now she was about to check out the response to her latest video on the Ladyblog. She was so excited! The interview with Lila had previously gotten her so many hits that she decided to do a follow up and she just couldn’t wait to see what her viewers had thought. Yes, the day had barely started and everything was already looking great.

Well, not completely great, she realized with a frown as she thought back to her previous altercation with Marinette. The two were still barely on speaking terms at this point over the whole Lila issue. Honestly, she loved Marinette like a sister, but that girl could be so unreasonable. Alya just didn’t get why the bluenette was so antagonistic towards Lila. She was new and just trying to get along. So her stories may be exaggerated a bit, but that didn’t make them lies.

She shook her head in disappointment. Perhaps the one downside of the new day was that it was going to be awkward with Marinette. The girls couldn’t set anything up with both Marinette and Lila together due to the tension and it was getting tedious trying to plan around that. She felt bad for not including Marinette as much as she would, but they wouldn’t have fun as a group if Marinette was just going to clash with Lila over everything she says.

Alya sighed at that. This really couldn’t go on. She just wanted all of her friends to get along so they could all have fun together, but no matter what she did, nothing seemed to work. Oh sure, Lila seemed on board—she even seemed pretty down whenever things went poorly with Marinette. It was just that Marinette never wanted to try. And since they’d been forced to leave her out more often, the girl had actually been going so far as to hang out with Chloe. Chloe! WILLINGLY!

As her friend, Alya felt it would be up to her to talk sense into Marinette. It was the right thing to do. And maybe if she could help Marientte get over her jealousy about Lila sitting with Adrien, they could go back to being like they were before. They would even be a bigger and better group if they all could get along. She knew the girl’s mind and knew all the right buttons to push to get her to go along. Surely she could make this work. She could hardly let Marinette continue to suffer with having to put up with Chloe, after all.

With that plan set, she looked at her blog.

And immediately spit out her drink all over her keyboard.

* * *

**“LILA!”**

Everyone jumped up in alarm at the outraged screech that practically echoed through the building. Lila jerked up and apart from a surprised but relieved Adrien who was simultaneously confused about the yell and grateful that his arm would be able to regain circulation. 

Once it registered just whose name had been shouted, all eyes immediately went to Marinette, who was known to be the only one with any real animosity towards the sweet transfer student, but the girl was off to the side talking with a surprisingly mellowing out Chloe and both looked just as confused as everyone else. This, naturally, led to some measure of befuddlement from everyone involved.

Hell hath no fury like a Marinette scorned.

Except when it was Alya.

And it was indeed an angry Alya who burst into the classroom with all the force of a raging hurricane, a trail of papers scattered in her wake. She barely spared a glance around the classroom before catching sight of her target and slamming her hand on the desk right in front of Lila—along with a stack of papers she had been carrying and slowly losing her grip on previously.

“EXPLAIN.”

This was not normal peppy Alya.

This was terrifying “I am getting answers and you will not sass me right now” Alya.

Her expression could have melted a hole through steel and was terrifying enough to make any akuma want to run for the hills.

And right now, those eyes promising a world of hurt were settled solely on one unfortunate transfer student.

To her credit, Lila was nothing if not skilled. Alya looked ready to gouge her eyes out with how angry she was at that moment, and it was with some measure of wariness that Lila realized that she rather likes her eyes right where they are in her head and sans claw marks. That should have been an indicator to level with the fuming brunette, but Lila was never one to give up any advantage. So with all the grace one would expect of a diplomat’s daughter and a master manipulator that only Marinette seemed to catch onto, she met Alya’s gaze with all the dignity and self-assurance of someone foolish enough to believe that nothing could go wrong for her.

Everyone else wisely backed away. Adrien, being unfortunate enough to be sitting next to her, attempted to scoot as far from Lila as the bench they were on would let him lest he be dragged into the epicenter of Alya’s rage.

Even Marinette didn’t dare to intrude. She’d see an angry Alya. There was no way she was going to risk earning her ire. This was not an Alya to mess with. If anything, Marinette kept her attention on the scene unfolding before her while simultaneously watching for any akumas. As angry as Alya was at that moment, there was little doubt in Marinette’s mind that one would be headed in their direction.

“Alya, what’s wrong? Why are you so mad?” Lila let some of the fear she was feeling slip—not out of weakness, surely, but rather for the sake of the audience bearing witness to this scene. If Alya was acting like a beast, it would only be expected for Lila to be the fearful innocent maiden.

“You lied didn’t you?” Alya hissed. “In your interview about Ladybug.”

Immediately, Lila’s eyes flashed in anger, remembering the humiliation the so-called ‘superhero’ had put her through. “Is that what SHE told you?” The liar asked, angrily. “I should have known she would, she was always jealous of me. But if you would just let me explain—”

Hearing that and what was no doubt going to be the start of another anti-Ladybug line of falsehoods, Marinette wanted nothing more than to step in and tell Lila off herself, screw the consequences. 

She didn’t get the chance. Instead, Alya slammed her hand on the desk again, making everyone jump. Poor Adrien finally fell off the edge of his seat in his latest attempt to try to put distance between himself and the face-off between the two girls.

“Ladybug didn’t say a thing.” Alya retorted, coldly. “She didn’t have to. You were able to say more than enough for everyone.”

Lila opened her mouth to retort, but froze when Alya pulled up the papers, causing more of the pages to scatter to the ground around her. Whatever was on the pages was enough to make Lila pale.

Marinette blinked at that, and her gaze fell to one of the fallen papers Alya had left behind. On it, all that could be seen was line after line of comments that could only have come from the Ladyblog.

**SassyCatz: Is there a point to this? Why are you making a big deal out of some dumb video about some brat who didn’t have the sense to get away from the fight?**

**Captain: Wait a minute, this doesn’t add up. Lila didn’t even get to Paris until 10/22 but the last akuma fight was weeks before then! When did they even have time to meet?**

**Mikoto is my Bae: OMG HE’S RIGHT!!!11!1**

**Polka-haunt-us: Hey yeah! And another thing, why would Ladybug become best friends with a civilian she just met? Isn’t that kind of stupid?**

**I Reboot: Not as stupid as the civilian outing herself to the world. Might as well buy a giant billboard shouting “Hey Hawk Moth! Come take me now!”**

**PierceTheHeavens: Seriously, either an attention whore or a dumbass. Just tell all the villains where you live while you’re at it.**

****nettie: she has to leave almost immediately after battle, so when would she even have the time to get buddy buddy?**  
**

**Oracle of the Stars: So you’re saying the Ladyblog is just posting anything now?**

**CATastrophic: What the hell? I thought this blog was supposed to be about facts? Not some Mary Sue-wannabe’s fanfiction!**

**sPiDerpIg: Journalism 101, people. This is why we have ethics and standards**

**Lady Luck: FACT CHECK. ITS A THING.**

**Soupcan: I thought LadyWifi was a journalist? Shouldn’t she have known this?**

**pretty_lady_sakura: Cleerly not since she can’t figure out that google is a thing.**

**Miraculously_Delicious: Damn, the Ladyblog really has gone downhill. Don’t even care about the truth anymore.**

**Trolling-Girl: Shadyblogger is shady.**

**d93n: trash. complete trash. just doing anything for views**

**Tom Ato: “and then Ladybug and I met and became bestest friends evah and a magical unicorn wisked me awa y to another world where I could shoot candy out my nose!”**

**Trevor: ^Tom Ato lol**

**QueenInPink: Ladyblog, I had more respect for you than this. What were you thinking?**

**Tango-Mango: Hey, LadyWifi, if I make a self insert video, will you put me in your blog’s highlights, too?**

**blackcatsarentbadluck: ^Tango-Mango Only if it includes an over the top sob story XD**

**ladybug#1fan: Posting lies is shameful. Ladybug would be so disappointed in you.**

The comments continued, only getting worse in negativity and vitriol with each that followed. And there were pages. If Alya’s anger was anything to go by, these pages weren’t even the half of it.

Marientte gaped in horror as the realization hit her of what had happened. Of what had Alya truly so upset. She looked up to see her friend grimacing at a now pale and shaken Lila, who for once had nothing to say. There was nothing she could say. There were no words that could hand wave this or hold off reality any longer. Bit by bit, the comments and posts dissected the video—line by line, she saw people realize what she had already known. And second by second, she watched how that scrutiny grew and people started to question more than the video.

Because if the Ladyblog had posted this one video full of lies, what else has it done?

Alya looked close to tears from sheer frustration. “I posted your video last night and they’ve torn it apart completely. Every statement—every word. Every detail. You lied to me. You lied to me and I posted it and now that’s destroyed their trust in me.”

The truth had finally come out, and for Alya, it was in the worst possible way.

She was a journalist. She was a reporter. It was all she wanted to be—going out there into the heat of things and discovering the truth. Out of everyone, Alya was the one to get the scoop and the one to work her hardest to find the facts of the matter. But this was the one time she hadn’t, and it came back to bite her. Because while Alya may not have looked too deeply, other people did. Like Marinette, there were other people who would notice the inconsistencies and look deeper into what was being said. Unlike Marinette, however, they were less trusting and less considerate of anyone’s feelings.

“Do you have any idea—?” The Ladyblogger started before she winced and brought a hand to cover her eyes. “This meant so much to me, and now no one is going to trust me again.”

Nino stepped forward, trying to reassure her. “Alya…it might not be as bad as you think.” 

Alya simply shook her head in despair.

“The Ladyblog is ruined.”

**Author's Note:**

> For a long while now, I've been wanting someone to point out or write out there being backlash for Alya posting that video of Lila in Volpina. Because if she's going to be a journalist, she needs to follow journalistic standards. Unfortunately, Alya doesn't seem to fact check or use her investigative skills when she really needs to. If she posted a video that really was nothing but lies, the internet would tear it apart.
> 
> I imagine it was the sudden appearance of Volpina that might have attracted more attention and saved her from that backlash. Unfortunately, she's not so lucky the second time around.
> 
> Is she being overdramatic? Probably. The Ladyblog isn't ruined, but it certainly has taken a major hit to its reputation and it's going to take quite a bit of time to fix that. It's still going to hurt Alya, though. She put a lot of time and love into her blog and it's taken a serious hit now.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Mr. Wolf wrote…](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17310944) by [A_Mirror_of_memories](https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Mirror_of_memories/pseuds/A_Mirror_of_memories)




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